Dive Brief:
- Citi has entered into an agreement to acquire rewards platform Kard Financial to bolster its consumer cards business, the bank said Thursday.
- Pairing the New York City-based fintech’s “technology, talent and merchant relationships” with Citi’s scale and existing payments capabilities is intended to strengthen the bank’s commerce ecosystem strategy, allowing for more personalized rewards and offers and fostering opportunities to connect customers and brands, Citi said.
- Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, although the $2.9 trillion-asset lender said they “are not material to Citi’s financial results.”
Dive Insight:
Kard, founded in 2015, serves banks, fintechs and marketers. Investors include Underscore Ventures, Fin Capital and Tiger Global. Kard, which uses predictive artificial intelligence and first-party transaction data, has pitched its services to issuers so they don’t have to build their own rewards programs.
“Kard has built advanced capabilities that complement our vision for the future of commerce and loyalty,” said Abhinav Anand, Citi’s head of value cards, lending and commerce, in the release. “With this acquisition, we believe we can work with Kard to accelerate innovation and deliver more personalized experiences for customers while creating new opportunities for brands and merchants to reach, engage and reward consumers in more meaningful ways.”
By joining Citi, Kard’s commerce media network “can expand rapidly,” Ben Mackinnon, Kard’s founder and CEO, said in a LinkedIn post.
“I started Kard with the goal of building more rewarding experiences for consumers,” Mackinnon said in the release. “Now being able to do that for Citi’s 70 million cardmembers, on top of the millions we support today, accelerates that original vision towards building the future of commerce.”
As banks angle for top-of-wallet positioning and competition ramps up, rewards and loyalty have become more important. A number of lenders have bolstered efforts recently to deepen customer relationships with new or revamped rewards programs, including Bank of America and PNC.
Citi’s U.S. consumer cards business counts about 70 million customers, according to a May investor day presentation. In 2025, the unit generated about $18.3 billion in revenue and $177.5 billion in loans.
At the investor day event, Pam Habner, head of the consumer cards business, said the bank planned to accelerate investments targeting growth and deepen loyalty with its commerce ecosystem.
A Citi spokesperson declined to specify how many employees Kard has, but said “the operating plan does not include any planned staff reductions as a result of the transaction.” The spokesperson also declined to specify when the deal is expected to close.
